Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Well, Eli just keeps getting better and better in his Bronco! He goes so fast now...it's great!
If he loves the song he's listening to, he just runs. Polly Wolly Doodle is still a fave, but the best last week was I've Been Working on the Railroad. He hated that song forever...and now it makes him do this:

I'll never get sick of pictures of him smiling. I waited a long time for them!

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I'm going to go pick blueberries again this week. Meeting a couple girlfriends on Wednesday evening. Gotta re-stock as I sent most of my stash to my sister, via my niece when she went home.

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Today is my first day at home, alone, with Eli in 10 days!

It was soooo nice having my niece here last week. Made the days not so lonely.

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My hubby has a three day weekend for the holiday - and our caregiver is available on Friday! So after his early morning dump run to beat the crowds...we are having another date day! :)

We haven't decided what we want to do though. The weather is supposed to be almost 100 this weekend.

Wish we could go swimming somewhere!

We might hike to Umptanum Falls again, and actually go around and down to the bottom of the waterfall and have a picnic.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

My niece Amelia was here visiting all last week. It was wonderful!
She spent time playing with my scrapbooking stuff - and made some really cute crafts! We watched movies....namely, Twilight, which I just wasn't sure if I'd like, so I wanted to see it with her because she's read the books and I wanted all the back story info, you know? Vampire movies need a tutorial in my opinion! LOL! Turns out it was a very sweet love story....and I would have absolutely been hooked when I was younger! I wouldn't mind reading the books.....but they are really thick! No time for that around here!

Unfortunately, Eli's caregiver was sick all week. The big plans we had...to visit all the different cultural things around our town...turned into quiet days at home....but she's the easiest company to have around and was happy to just read books when I needed to do housework, or put Eli down for naps and bedtime.

The week in Re-cap:

We picked blueberries - 12 lbs total

We went to Costco - and she bought three history books.

We went to the Feed Store - and she bought Peacock Feathers.

We made brownies...and ate the whole pan.

She created a scrapbook page using a beautiful picture of her sister Joey at Magone Lake.

She made one mini accordian album and decorated a mint tin to put it in.

We went shopping at Craft Warehouse - she bought a small sketchbook for her purse - she loved it!

We went to lunch at Red Robin - service was slow but the flavored lemonades were delish!

Then, we went to the Yakima Valley Museum. Great art exhibit was on display and she got to see an original painting by one of her favorite artists: Hung Liu

We went scrapbooking at the monthly crop that I go to and she worked on an 8x8 album I gave her - we visited, ate, crafted, and went home at 10 so she could get a good night's sleep for her 5 hour drive the next morning.

Monday, June 22, 2009

As you've seen in a previous post, we have a HUGE Maple tree in our backyard. In the early Spring helicopters grow on it....and then start falling off in late Spring, as the leaves come on.

Remember playing with them when you were a kid? Heck, they're fun as adults!! We've been having a blast with them! You can take a handful and throw them in the air....and it puts on quite a show!

But, we've learned two things:

A) They self propagate!

Little seedlings start wherever they land in dirt and can get a little water! We've had them in all our flower barrels. I finally decided to start saving some, and see how big I can get them. I gotta be able to find somebody I know who wants a Maple tree start for free, right? :)

I've even thought of becoming a Maple Tree Grower.

LOL!

AND....

B) They are a bit of a nuisance!

One day Lonnie decided to see if the gutters needed cleaning out....and look what he found!

HELLO HELICOPTERS!

So, with our handy dandy leaf blower, in reverse mode, he vacuumed them out of the gutters! :)

Every season brings something to clean up with all these trees we have. Good thing we love nature!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

I'm so excited to report that Eli can FINALLY sit in his Racing Stroller that we bought when I was pregnant!

It was never a successful venture in the past...but thanks to his Ativan....his calmer body was able to enjoy a stroll around the pasture! And a jog around the parking area we have! :)

Here he is at 3 months old:

He did OK here. I think he started crying and I was still new to the whole CP world....so we didn't try it again.....Until....

February 2008 (age 2 1/2).

I had all kinds of blankets rolled and tucked everywhere. It was a nightmare! This was the heyday of him hating to sit. Without the proper support and restraints like in his carseat it was a total bust! I wanted to sell the stroller after this!

We actually had someone want to buy it a few months ago....and Lon just didn't want to give up trying him in it someday. I'm so glad we kept it! It's a much smoother ride than his adaptive stroller! He can enjoy outside with me now while I water plants and stuff! :)

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Went to our fence line and visited Mr. Llama today.

He was in the mood for some posing! What a character!

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Tonight Eli fell asleep at 5 pm.

Ugh.

I tried to wake him by rolling him onto his back.

Do you think it worked?

He finally woke up at 5:55 (when I was quietly talking to the video camera while taping him!) Then, he didn't go back to sleep until 7:00 pm. So, that's a good thing. I didn't want to wake up at 4 in the morning tomorrow. He's already back to waking around 5:00 am. I don't want a repeat of last Fall/Winter's 4 am wakings. His early Spring sleeping schedule of sleeping in until 5:45 or 6:00 was bliss!

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Now, here is a sight not usually seen in our house:

When I rolled Eli over and could tell he was really asleep and like a wet noodle I positioned his legs this way to trigger some stretches in his hip joints thanks to gravity!

This is as far as his legs will open this way! His hips don't have great range of motion unfortunately.

I wasn't able to go away for the [whole] weekend, because I couldn't get a motel room with a kitchen.

Taking Eli out of town is hard enough, but to be in a motel is even harder. Without a kitchen - not doable!

Amelia has a beautiful little apartment....that was full of her immediate family. We would have been totally welcome to stay there - but with Eli's funky schedule (goes to bed at 6:30 at night and wakes up at 5:00 in the morning) I hate to inflict that on people in such close quarters, you know?

But I was able to make a day trip down to La Grande for the party!

Me.

On a road trip.

By myself.

Just me and the CD changer.

Yeah, baby!

6 hours of music and singing - and NO ELMO!!!

I gave myself a sore throat singing so much.

It was great!

My dear hubby stayed home with Eli and they had a great day and evening together!

Eli Jansen - The Star of the Blog!

My handsome little "Bug". Completely addicted to Despicable Me! Finally gave up listening to Elmo (hooray!) and now listens to his movie! Very opinionated about his music. (He comes by that honestly - my husband and I are both music lovers.) He's my: Bronco-riding, Chain-Loving, Pom-Pom shaking, Best-Shopping-Buddy-Ever, and makes me laugh every day!!

Amy - Wife, Mom, Blogger

8 years into this journey, and I'm amazed at the things that have happened in my life because of Eli. He is an inspiration to so many, and his smile can make anyone feel better, immediately. I never imagined that my son would be so awesome. I am blessed!